EURO 2020: GROUP STAGE England 1, Croatia 0 (Group D); Austria 3, North Macedonia 1; Netherlands 3, Ukraine 2 (Group C)

MONDAY 14 JUNE 2021

New Zealand thump hosts England in second Test to seal series win It’s a tough one to take because at the start of the week I thoroughly thought we could come here and win the series, but in all departments we could have been a little bit better if we’re being brutally honest.

Sport |15England captain Joe Root

SportMONDA

New Zin secIt’s a touthorougseries, bbit bette

EnglaEnglaEnglaE lgEngla

Action during a Group A match between Qatar’s Al Arabi SC and Saudi Arabia’s Mudhar Club at the Asian Club Handball Championship in Jeddah, yesterday. Al Arabi won the match 26-24 to top the group with 4 points. In a Group B yesterday, Al Duhail SC recorded a 34-31 win over Saudi Arabia’s Al Wehda.

Al Arabi, Al Duhail claim wins

THE PENINSULA — DOHA

Qatar’s national team, under the supervision of head coach Felix Sanchez, yesterday began a three-week training camp in the Croatian city of Rovinj.

The team management picked the venue for the preparations of next month’s CONCACAF Gold Cup, where the reigning Asian champions will make their debut.

Qatar squad comprises 30 players, who will also undergo a week-long training camp in Houston, USA fol-lowing the conclusion of Rovinj camp on July 6. The city of Rovinj is

four-hour drive away from Croatian capital Zagreb.

Qatar, appearing in the Gold Cup as guests, have been placed in Group D, which also includes Honduras, Panama and Grenada.

They will take on Panama on July 13 before playing Grenada in their second game on July 17. Qatar’s last match will be against Honduras on July 20. All of Qatar’s matches are scheduled to be played in Houston.

The Sanchez-coached side, earlier, this month sealed berth for the Asian Cup 2023 after beating India and Oman, topping Group E from seven victories and a draw.

Team Qatar hits the training pitch to prepare for Gold Cup

Qatar's players and team officials ahead of a training session in Rovinj, Croatia yesterday.

Eriksen had cardiac arrest but test results are normal, says Danish team doctorREUTERS — COPENHAGEN

Denmark’s Christian Eriksen suffered a cardiac arrest when he collapsed during his side’s Euro 2020 opening match against Finland, his team’s doctor confirmed yesterday, but the reason remained unclear.

“He was gone; we did cardiac resuscitation, it was a cardiac arrest. We got him back after one defib (defi-brillation),” Morten Boesen told a news conference, adding that Eriksen remained in hospital for further tests after his col-lapse on Saturday.

“The exams that have been done so far look fine,” Boesen added. “We don’t have an explanation to why it happened.”

Eriksen, 29, collapsed suddenly in the 42nd minute of the match while running near the left touchline after a Denmark throw-in. As a hush fell over the 16,000-strong crowd, his team-mates gathered around him while he was treated on the pitch and then carried off on a stretcher.

The Danish players had been in contact with Eriksen via a video conference, said Peter Moller, director of Danish football association DBU.

Coach Kasper Hjulmand said Eriksen had told him he did not remember much from Saturday’s collapse and that he was eager to get back on to the pitch.

“He would like for us to play on,” Hjulmand said.

19th major: Djokovic fights back to win French OpenAP — PARIS

Novak Djokovic came all the way back after dropping the first two sets to beat Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-7 (6), 2-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 in the French Open final yesterday for his 19th Grand Slam title.

Djokovic’s second trophy at Roland Garros moves him one major champi-onship away from tying the men’s record of 20 shared by Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer.

It also puts reigning Australian Open champion Djokovic halfway to a calendar-year Grand Slam, some-thing no man has accomplished since Rod Laver in 1969.

The 34-year-old Djokovic elimi-nated 13-time French Open champion Nadal in a semi-final that lasted more than four hours on Friday night. That might be why the 22-year-old Tsitsipas had the upper hand early, and Djokovic looked drained for two sets.

Eventually, though, he started

making fewer mistakes, got his best-in-the-game returning on track, served almost flawlessly down the stretch and was able to complete his sixth career comeback from two sets down - and second of the past week.

Indeed, the International Tennis Federation said Djokovic - who trailed 19-year-old Lorenzo Musetti two sets to none in the fourth round - is the first man in the professional era to win a Grand Slam tournament after twice facing a 2-0 deficit in sets.

“It was again an electric atmos-phere. Nine hours of tennis in less than 48 hours,” Djokovic said on court.

“It’s not easy; physically and men-tally it was very, very difficult for me, these three days. I believed in my capacities and in my game. It’s a dream come true.”

This was the first major final for Tsitsipas and 29th for Djokovic, who also won the French Open in 2016, along with nine titles at the Australian Open, five at Wimbledon and three at the US Open.

Of just as much, if not more, signifi-cance to the ultimate outcome Sunday: Djokovic entered the day with a 34-10 record in five-setters - including a men’s-record 31 wins in Grand Slam matches of that length - while Tsitsipas was 5-4.

On a sunny and breezy afternoon, with the temperature approaching 80 degrees Fahrenheit (over 25 degrees Celsius), Tsitsipas needed just over 100 minutes to grab a big lead yesterday.

But the tenacious and talented Djokovic did not quit, grabbing early breaks in each of the last three sets.

Serbia’s Novak Djokovic celebrates with the trophy after winning the French Open final against Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas.

Djokovic’s second trophy at Roland Garros moves him one major championship away from tying the men’s record of 20 shared by Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer.

Sterling strikes as England down Croatia; Netherlands edge Ukraine REUTERS — LONDON

Raheem Sterling scored his first goal at a major tournament to give England a 1-0 win over Croatia in their Euro 2020 Group D opener yesterday.

England started brightly in front of around 20,000 fans in the sun-drenched Wembley Stadium, with forward Phil Foden rattling the far post and a long-range volley from mid-fielder Kalvin Phillips forcing Dominik Livakovic into a low save.

They made the breakthrough shortly after halftime, with Phillips showing excellent skill to evade a challenge and thread a pass through to Sterling who ran in behind the defence and smashed the ball in via a touch off Livakovic.

“It feels good... I’ve always said that if I play at Wembley in a major tournament I had to score. I grew up two minutes down the road, so I knew I had to score here, and it was a great feeling to do it,” said Sterling.

“There are a lot of different reasons I’ve not been scoring with my club, but that’s irrelevant now. It’s great to get off to a win, that was the most important thing. It’s been a long season for me, I couldn’t wait to get here, to get started, I knew it was going to be a positive one.”

Croatia will look to bounce back in their next game against Czech Republic on Friday with England taking on neighbours and arch-rivals Scotland.

In Amsterdam last night, the Netherlands made an emphatic return to major tournament football by snatching a 3-2 win over Ukraine in a thrilling Euro 2020 match after they looked to have thrown away a two-goal lead.

Defender Denzel Dumfries headed the winner in the 85th minute after Ukraine had clawed their way back into the game from two goals down thanks to a stunning curled strike from Andriy Yarmolenko and a Roman Yaremchuk header.

The Dutch had dominated large parts of the frenetic Group C match and deservedly went in front in the 52nd minute when captain Georginio Wijnaldum smashed a loose ball high into the net and striker Wout Weg-horst doubled the advantage six minutes later with a scrappy finish.

Dumfries had wasted a glaring chance to score the opening goal late in the first half when he missed the target with a glancing header but he more than made amends with his late strike, helped by erratic goalkeeping by Ukraine's Georgi Bushchan.

Meanwhile, in Bucharest, late goals from substitutes Michael G r e g o r i t s c h a n d

Marko Arnautovic gave Austria a convincing 3-1 victory over European Championship debu-tants North Macedonia in an entertaining opening Group C

clash. Gregoritsch prodded home David Alaba’s cross in the 78th minute before Arnautovic struck in the 89th, as Austria earned a first win at the Euros at their seventh attempt and their first victory at a major tournament since the 1990 World Cup.

Stefan Lainer put Austria ahead with an acrobatic effort in the 18th minute when he latched on to Marcel Sabitzer’s cross-field pass at the back post, leaping into the air to beat keeper Stole Dimitrievski from a tight angle.

North Macedonia captain Goran Pandev equalised 10 minutes later to bag his team’s first-ever goal at a major tour-nament after capitalising on a mix-up in the Austrian defence, but it was not to be for the tour-nament’s lowest-ranked team.

Austria resume their cam-paign against Netherlands in Amsterdam on Thursday, while North Macedonia stay in Bucharest to face Ukraine.

England’s Raheem Sterling (left) celebrates after scoring a goal.

Today's Fixtures

4pm: Scotland vs Czech Republic

7pm: Poland vs Slovakia 10pm: Spain vs Sweden

15MONDAY 14 JUNE 2021Sport

New Zealand thump England in second Test to seal series winREUTERS — BIRMINGHAM

New Zealand crushed hosts England by eight wickets in the second and final Test yesterday to seal a 1-0 series win after chasing down a target of 38 runs on the fourth day at Edgbaston.

The result meant New Zealand, who thoroughly out-played the hosts in the match, secured a first Test series win in England since 1999 and only their third overall in the country.

England had been reduced to 122-9 at stumps on day three with a slender lead of 37 runs and Olly Stone was caught behind off Trent Boult on the first ball of the day yesterday, leaving the visitors on the verge of a famous victory.

New Zealand lost Devon Conway for three after the opening batsman fished at a Stuart Broad delivery only to edge it to James Bracey before Will Young (8) played a ball on to his stumps off Stone to leave the visitors at 33-2.

But stand-in skipper Tom

Latham (23 not out), who went past 4,000 runs in Test cricket during his knock, and Ross Taylor (0 not out) guided them to 41-2 in 10.5 overs.

Latham praised the squad’s depth after they came into the contest having made six changes from the drawn first Test at Lord’s.

“It’s great to have that per-formance under the belt. We were outstanding over the four days, everyone who came in did their roles,” Latham said. “It’s

fantastic for the depth of New Zealand cricket. Will Young, Matt Henry haven’t had much opportunity but the way they stood up was outstanding.

“England have a fantastic bowling attack and we played them really well. We adapted well and put good numbers on the board.”

England skipper Joe Root said his team had “massively underperformed”.

“It hasn’t been our best week, has it? Credit to New

Zealand they have outper-formed us throughout the game,” Root said.

“It’s a tough one to take because at the start of the week I thoroughly thought we could come here and win the series, but in all departments we could have been a little bit better if we’re being brutally honest.”

New Zealand will enjoy an extra day’s rest before they take on India in the ICC World Test Championship Final starting in Southampton on Friday.

New Zealand players celebrate after winning the series.

Brief Scores: England vs New ZealandEngland 1st Innings 303 (D Lawrence 81 no, R Burns 81; T Boult 4-85, M Henry 3-78)New Zealand 1st Innings 388 (W Young 82, D Conway 80, R Taylor 80; S Broad 4-48)England 2nd Innings 122 (N Wagner 3-18, M Henry 3-36)New Zealand 2nd Innings 41-2

Asif stars as United down Qalandars

Islamabad United’s Asif Ali celebrates his half century during a PSL match against Lahore Qalandars in Abu Dhabi yesterday. Asif scored 75 off 43 balls as United score 152-7 and bowled out Qalandars for 124 in 18.2 overs to claim 28-run win.

Brilliant Hadman clinches maiden victoryTHE PENINSULA — DOHA

Having finished sixth over 1,400m on his debut at Leop-ardstown, Ireland on May 14, Hadman (IRE) (Starspangled-banner x Anneli) showed plenty of progress when finishing third over 1,200m at The Curragh Ireland on his second start on June 2. Yesterday, at Gowran Park and on his third start, The Al Mamoura Partnership-owned colt secured first victory.

After making most of the running, Hadman strongly resisted the challenges of both Unconquerable (Churchill x Rien Ne Vas Plus) and his half brother Once Upon A River (Churchill x Cassandra Go).

He managed to hold on the last strides to win by a

head at the line for his trainer Joseph O’Brien and jockey Dylan Browne McMonagle in front of the Donnacha Aidan O’Brien-trained and Gavin Ryan-ridden Unconquerable. The G M Lyons-trained and Colin Keane-ridden Once Upon A River was a further short behind in third.

These margins demon-strate how tough was the contest in the final stages of the 1,400m race for two year olds.

Well regarded by connec-tions, Hadman, could now head into group company and he has already been entered in both the Railway Stakes (Gr2) and The Phoenix Stakes (Gr1), two of the best races for two-year-old’s in Ireland.

Bred by Merriebelle Irish

Farm Ltd, Hadman was bought at Goffs Yearling Sale. He is a son of Coolmore stallion Starspangledbanner

and out of Anneli, winner of a race in France as a three-year-old. Hadman’s second dam, Anne Of Kiev, won two

listed races in England and she is from the same family as Chorist, winner of the Pretty Polly Stakes (Gr1).

The Al Mamoura Partnership-owned colt Hadman in action yesterday.

McKeown breaks 100m backstroke world record

AP — ADELAIDE

Swimmer Kaylee McKeown says the death of her father 10 months ago inspired her to break the 100-meter backstroke world record yesterday at the Australian Olympic trials.

The 19-year-old McKeown had a time of 57.45 seconds at the South Aus-tralian Aquatic Centre to improve on the previous mark of 57.57 set by American Regan Smith in 2019.

McKeown’s father Sholto died last August from brain cancer.

“With COVID and the passing of my dad in August last year, it has been a huge, huge build-up to these trials.And I have turned it into a bit of a hunger and motivation behind me. I use it every day that I wake up," she said